EU urges Israel to rebuild demolished Palestinian classrooms

Source: MEMO

European Union officials have urged Israeli authorities to rebuild recently demolished classrooms that served Palestinian children living in Abu Nuwar community in the central West Bank.

On Sunday, Israeli occupation forces destroyed two, donor-funded classrooms, which provided an education for more than two dozen Palestinian children. The classrooms were funded by the EU and its member states.

In a statement issued yesterday, the European Union Representative and the EU Heads of Mission in Jerusalem and Ramallah expressed “strong concern” over the demolition.

“Every child has the right to access to education and States have an obligation to protect, respect and fulfil this right, by ensuring that schools are inviolable safe spaces for children,” it continued.

The EU officials called upon “the Israeli authorities to halt demolitions and confiscations of Palestinian houses and property in accordance with its obligations as an occupying power under international humanitarian law.”

The EU added that Israel should “cease the policy of settlement construction and expansion, of designating land for exclusive Israeli use and of denying Palestinian development.”

The statement concluded by calling on “the Israeli authorities to rebuild the school structures in the same place”.